Postback for Traffic Arbitrage

Analytics in traffic arbitration is as important as the offer or traffic. To evaluate the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, arbitrageurs need to know where the traffic is coming from, which sources drive profit, and which ones pull in the negative. To transmit this information, you need a Postback URL. Sounds complicated? No worries! In this article, we will explain why postback for traffic arbitrage is essential and how you can make it your analytics ally!

If you are starting to arbitrage and select tools for effective campaign optimization, this article will be useful to you.

Decoding Postback

Postback is an accurate conversion tracking tool that allows you to transfer data from the CPA network to a tracker or an advertising network. By collecting all the statistics about the advertising campaign in one place, postback makes life much easier for the arbitrageur. It allows them to analyze the results and optimize the campaign.

The Postback URL is a unique URL configured to send data about user behavior back to the advertiser’s tracking system. Where to get the URL postback depends on your tracker and partner network. The link itself generates automatically, and the webmaster can only use it correctly and configure the postback on other platforms, following the guidelines and documentation. Each service has different integration, and tracker documentation or support will help you get a postback link.

How Data Transfer with Postback Works

Methods of Data Transfer

There are the following ways to transfer data using postback:

• From the server of the partner network to the tracker.
• Postback of the CPA network to the server that serves the tracker, and then to the advertising network.
• From the server of the advertising network to the affiliate.

Basic Functionality

The postback works simply: each click is assigned a click ID. If a click brings a conversion, the system receives information that this particular click was converted into a lead. Before setting up a postback for your advertising campaign, the webmaster needs to know exactly where and from where the data should be sent.

Essence of Postback

Simply put, the essence of the postback is to inform the advertiser about the targeted actions performed by users (purchase, registration, download, installation of the application). This technology is relevant for online stores and social networks. The postback transmits data without reloading the page, so users can quickly exchange data with the server. This makes it easier for them to work with websites, allowing them to automatically save data, check whether fields are filled in correctly, and update dynamic page elements. Web developers use postback technology to create applications.

Traffic Efficiency

Postback helps to save traffic. When the application does not update the entire page, but only the necessary part, when transferring data to the server, unnecessary information is not downloaded again.

Detailed Campaign Analysis

Postback allows arbitrageurs to analyze the campaign in detail. They can not only track conversions but also identify working bundles and effective advertising creatives. Additionally, postback in traffic arbitration helps to combat fraud. You can use it to check leads in arbitration. If the traffic does not match the KPI (for example, it does not match the geo), it is rejected, and no commission is paid.

Postback vs. Other Methods

An arbitrageur may well achieve profit without postback, if, for example, using Facebook Ads as a source, where campaign optimization is done with the help of a pixel. However, using methods such as native ads, push notifications, or pop-ups without postback is irrational. The webmaster will not know which sources do not convert at all, require optimization, or are effective – all of which will necessarily affect the ROI. In the case of push notifications, for example, Google Analytics is ineffective because most of the data is lost. Therefore, in affiliate marketing, an option such as postback will give affiliates more information than analytics systems from search engines.

Global and Local Postback for Traffic Arbitrage

Depending on the type of postback, you can configure it at the level of an offer, account, or advertising campaign. There is a distinction between local and global postback. You can use local postback (also known as “on—stream” postback) to track data within the framework of a single advertising campaign.

The essence of global postback is to transmit data about all streams to the tracker or advertising network. You configure global postback once for all offers. It is enough to set up the URL postback correctly, register all clicks and tags, and it does not matter when the campaign was created.

Reasons to Set up Postback

To set up a postback for traffic arbitrage, you need an affiliate program, a tracker, or an advertising network that supports postback technology. To set up postback in the partner network, first select the data transfer method:

• Server-to-Server (S2S) is a standard method of data transmission when a request is sent to the advertiser’s server to confirm the conversion.
• API — this method of transmitting information using special libraries is used for more complex integrations.

Postback settings are mostly performed in the tracker. This is where the postback URL of the affiliate program and the postback URL of the advertising network are configured.

What’s the purpose of this configuration? The advertising grid and the tracker use different tokens (macros) to transfer data. The essence of the postback is to achieve a single format in which the advertising network can receive data and the tracking platform can give it back.

How to Configure Postback?

It generally takes 3 steps to configure postback for traffic arbitrage:

1. Get Postback URL. You can find it in your Profile. Log in to your Tacolo.co Advertiser Account. There you will find the postback URL in the Profile dropdown menu (click on the username in the personal account in the upper right corner).

2. Add Traffic Source and Configure Postback. Add advertising network as a new traffic source. You can use a template or simply select your ads network from a list of integrated platforms. Create a new campaign in the tracker, select the traffic source and paste the copied Postback URL from the affiliate program there. Sometimes you will need to configure tokens manually.
3. Create a new campaign in the tracker, select a traffic source, and insert a postback URL from the ads network. The tracker will generate an advertising campaign link that can be integrated into the advertising account.

By the way, Binom is one of the popular tools for postback conversion tracking. And for new recruits of postback conversion tracking, Binom and Tacolo.co prepared a special promo code! You will find it in Tacolo.co & Binom Integration Guide!

Meanwhile, Tacolo.co Team is always ready to help you get started smoothly. If you have any questions, drop us a message.

Macros & Token Configuration for Postback

Tokens or macros are variables that are added to a URL and define the parameters by which traffic is tracked. For example:

• {campaign_id} – Campaign ID;
• {site_category} – ID of the traffic source category;
• {click_id} – Click ID;
• {teaser_id} – Teaser ID;
• {widget_id} – ID of the site the user came from;
• {payout} – payment for each conversion in the affiliate program;
• {category_id} – the category ID of the teaser;
• {geo} – display region;
• {status} – for transmitting conversion statuses;
• {external_id} – ID of the traffic transmitted by the source;
• {stream_id} – Stream ID;
• {revenue} – income;
• {source} – resource;
• {os} – operating system;
• {os_version} – OS version;
• {isp} – provider;
• {cost} – cost per click;
• {browser} – browser;
• {language} – browser language;
• {carrier} – mobile operator.

Tokens are used in an unchanged format, each one is written using &. You can find out which macros are supported in your partner network from the support.

Postback for Traffic Arbitration

The setup is pretty much the same across all CPA networks and ads trackers – it is quite quick and easy. If the platform already has integration with the tracker, the whole procedure will take no more than 3 minutes. If the tracker is not integrated, then the token unification process will have to be performed manually. But in the future, this will make it possible not only to keep records of conversions but also to use various features that your network offers – the creation of whitelist and blacklist, automatic rules, use of smart CPC, and adjustment of bids.

P. S. Postback for traffic arbitrage is mainly an analytics tool, and its presence alone is not a guarantee of a profitable advertising campaign. For those who carefully analyze and optimize their bundles, this is a great feature. The postback will help you understand which advertising creatives and landings “hit that goal”, learn when the audience is most active, and find out which sources bring the highest quality traffic, and which ones are better turned off right now to avoid wasting the budget on them or not unscrewing advertising at a time when it is ineffective.

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